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Excellent work, George! That is one classy pipe!

Two questions/comments, first why not drill the draft hole straight? Sure, it shortens the chamber depth a bit, but you'll have plenty of room on the bottom and it will be easier to do. Second, why a tapered bit for the draft hole? I think 99% of guys around here use a normal straight bit. Makes mor...

Those inserts are a brilliant idea. Very well executed, Wayne.

I made a magnum last year that had a 1 1/4" bowl for Rich Esserman. He reported that it smoked great. I used a 1" spade bit and followed it up with a boring bar. Like you, I thought a 1" chamber just looked a little out of place.

Wow. The stem part I get, but the camouflaged glue line is not something I have experience with. Looks terrific!

I'll give my opinion which is based only off of my personal experience. I think that engineering is much more important than briar. By that I mean that a well engineered pipe made out of "bad" briar is likely to smoke better than a poorly engineered pipe made out of "good" briar....

I'm no engineer, nor do I play one on TV, but I built a 4 wheel buffing set up from scratch. All you really need is a motor and VFD, belt, a couple pulleys, some bearings, and an axle to mount the wheels on. Using scrap lumber or mounting it directly to the bench work good too. My system is stand al...

If you don't already have a small, round, chainsaw file buy one. It will be the most important tool you own. With it you can really define the bowl from the shank. I got started with all hand tools as well and in the very beginning I did almost all my shaping with a chainsaw file.

Wow, what an improvement you've been showing lately, Doc. Good job!

Other than what you pointed out, I'd say you can thin the stem down a bit. Right now you can see the convex lines. They should be either dead straight or slightly concave toward the bite zone.

There's no substitute for holding pipes in your hand before buying. That's what makes pipe shows so valuable. I remember my first good look at high grade pipes in Chicago. I was surprised at how many pipe makers took obvious shortcuts and still demanded high prices. I think that mentality is much l...

I was sort of shocked when I saw my first "high grades" in person. Even the the artisan world brand name goes a long way. Worth is all relative.

Count me in on this one!

That pipe is one of your best I've seen in a while. Very nice!

I always loved watching Alec Guiness. He was always so quintessentially British!

I don't think the keyhole is causing your problem, but it's hard to tell. Like Jeremiah said, chucking reamers can be used with great effect to open up the mortise to a consistent diameter. The problem here could be a number of things. I usually face before I do anything else, then drill the mortise...

This is a good looking pipe, but I think there are several things you could have done to maintain the feel of the pipe while making the composition a little more harmonious. Keep in mind these are just my suggestions. Mechanically and technically I don't see any glaring problems. If it were me, I'd ...

I hear Rod Davies made pipes before electricity was invented by Thomas Edison....and he had to walk to school in the snow...uphill...both ways!

My lawyer advised me not to comment, but I can't let baseless accusations like these go unanswered. Ok first things first, although the similarity in appearance is striking, and that individual clearly has good taste, that's not an Ocelot. It's a Serval. I've been slaving away in my garage all this ...

Are these block, or the pressed stuff?

DocAitch wrote:Ocelot 55, check your PMs.
DocAitch

Got it!

I've seen this thread before. Very good run down!

Two things I can't seem to get over. Those jaws! Dude it makes me nervous just looking at it! Second, I really like your downdraft table idea. Does it really work?